Israel to back bill deducting funds from PA over prisoner payments

The Israeli government is planning to submit legislation to deduct from the tax and tariffs Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) an amount equivalent to the payments made by the PA to prisoners and the families of those killed by Israel.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced the move yesterday at a meeting of his Yisrael Beiteinu party, telling his colleagues that the PA “encourages and incentivises terrorism”.

The paper reports that the defence ministry’s bill is a version of legislation submitted by Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern. Stern said he was “glad to hear Defence Minister Lieberman adopting my bill, which is supported by all the security bodies in the State of Israel.”

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Stern added: “The time has come for the State of Israel to put an end to the PA’s encouragement of terrorism. I hope this bill will be promoted quickly and will be brought to a vote in the Knesset in the coming days.”

The MK proposed his bill last March, and it passed a preliminary vote in June.